About The Vault

The Vault is a $O{+^$ site that provides databases of information about his career. It is designed to give those who peruse it a reliable source of data for enjoyment as well as a research tool for students and the media. The main objective is to provide a historical reference to document the career of $O{+^$ , one of the most significant contributors to modern popular music.

This section is intended to give general information about the make-up, history and navigation of the site. If you have any questions, please access The Vault FAQ first to see if it has already been answered. If the question has not been covered in the FAQ, not please feel free to use the Contact page to reach Warren Mason or Bill Johnson, the maintainers of The Vault.

The Vault Navigation

The Vault's navigation is similar to that of an FTP site. The homepage displays a list of major sections. These include this section, Articles, Concerts, Recordings, Royal Court, Online and soon a visual media archive. Major sections can be accessed at any time by clicking the navigation bar on the left side of a page. To return to the homepage at any time, click The Vault logo in the upper left hand corner of a page.

Once inside a major section, a list of minor sections will be displayed. The major section is noted by a large header with several buttons, which indicate the minor sections, at the top of the page. The user can access these minor sections by clicking on the button of their choice. For instance, the Royal Court section includes the subsections "written for others" and "credits and remixes." Inside these sections, there are several subsections. The user can go backwards a section by clicking on the "back" button located under most major section headers.

History

On June 6, 1997, The Vault closed after more than two years online. In that time, it had become one of the best known $O{+^$ sites on the net, with it's database of articles and information as well as the latest news. However, the time constraints of the sole maintainer, Warren Mason, were too great and he did not wish to see The Vault fade away into another waste of space on the Internet.

The site is now back and better than ever, with some help. $O{+^$ ologist Bill Johnson has joined Warren Mason to help keep pertinent information up-to-date. The site has also taken on a new information only format that will be a lot easier to keep current. There are no news sections to take up valuable time and distract the original historical focus of the site. Bill is a knowledgeable curator and I am happy to have him around to help.

Changes at the new The Vault

The changes from the old The Vault are not as drastic as they might appear at first. There will be no news as it is significantly time consuming, not an original goal of this site and there are some who do it better (such as Le Grind). In addition, New York New Power has been taken over solely by one of the original four coordinators, Derek Kelly, and renamed New Power New York. Therefore, that section will not reside here any longer.

Special Thanks

We would like to thank are friends at Uptown Magazine for sharing their research over the years. We have worked together with them to provide this community of $O{+^$ listeners, the general public and media with a vast array of information about the career of this artist. Without the help of Uptown Magazine this database would be nowhere near it's present quantity of information, would have taken a lot more time to compile and would not be anywhere near as accurate as it is. We thank the staff there, particularly Lars O. Einarsson, for their tireless assistance.

In addition, we would like to thank a list of people who have assisted with the compilation of information here at The Vault. This group has taken the time to share corrections, offer new information and provide other assistance. This list will be available shortly.